As the August 1, 2006, Kansas primary election approaches, evolution is a burning issue. The state board of education is at the center of the furor, of course; in November 2005, the board voted 6-4 to adopt a set of state science standards that were rewritten, under the tutelage of local "intelligent design" activists, to impugn the scientific status of evolution.

A member of the Ohio state board of education proposed a change to the state science standards, prompting concern that the attack on evolution education in the Buckeye State -- which began in 2000, when the standards were in development -- is not yet over.

Writing in the July 2006 issue of Physics Today, Murray Peshkin describes his experiences in speaking to small groups -- "service clubs such as Rotary, high-school and college students of science and science journalism, a school-based community event, a League of Women Voters chapter, a Unitarian church, and a microscopy club" -- about science, religion, and evolution education. "The response to my talks has been almost uniformly positive," he reports.

A brief story in Naturelists[Link broken] the top five science blogs -- "those written by working scientists covering scientific issues" -- by popularity, including P. Z. Myers's Pharyngula and the collectively authored The Panda's Thumb, both of which provide a wealth of information and commentary on the creationism/evolution debate.

On April 10, 2006 the school board in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, voted 4-1 to amend their Science Policy 401. According to an
article in the April 11 issue of the Albuquerque Journal, the policy, adopted in August, 2005 by a 3-2 vote, had been strongly opposed by district science teachers and others because of wording which seemed to promote teaching intelligent design. A board member who has opposed the policy told the Journal that it was "...